Boston Globe sportswriter Shaughnessy contends that the cash sale in 1920 of star Babe Ruth by his team, the Boston Red Sox, to the New York Yankees put a curse on the Beantown franchise that has prevailed for 70 years. In support of that argument, he reviews the history of the team--but with a difference. Most books about the Sox during this era may indulge in necessary masochism; Shaughnessy's is a super-deluxe masochism. He concentrates almost exclusively on end-season and post-season play, discussing in agonizing detail the team's four defeats in the World Series, its lack of success in the only two playoff games in league history, the collapse in the 1988 American League Championship Series--and all those times when the Bosox failed to lead their league or division by a single game or two. In story after story of near-triumph, the book should delight the team's most fanatically loyal followers, who will find it the verbal equivalent of a hair shirt. (June)